


Radio Silence

by ChibiTabatha



Series: Chibi's 2019 Whumptober [7]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Destruction of Mail, Familial Disownment, Isolation, Letters, M/M, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 23:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20938646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibiTabatha/pseuds/ChibiTabatha
Summary: Sue shipped Link off to live with family, but the radio silence from his best friend has him in shambles. The isolation suffocating.





	Radio Silence

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober Day 7 Prompt: Isolation

It had been a couple months since Sue found out how he felt about his best friend. A couple months since that very same boy told him he didn't want to lose him. A couple months since he had heard from the boy he had come to love.  
  
His aunt and uncle didn't talk to him, none of his classmates were interested in talking to him either it seemed. Link found himself eating all his meals alone, tucked away under a stairwell eating peanut butter sandwiches, eating cold leftovers in his room.  
  
They had promised to write each other. And write he had. Letter after letter, but no response was ever received. Link would check the mail, throwing the letters from his mother right into the trash can. Her words weren't the ones he wanted to read. Link desperately craved news from his best friend.  
  
At this point it wouldn't matter if Rhett decided what had happened that night was a mistake. Link would throw it all away to keep the blond in his life. He even wrote as much in his last letter.  
  
Then it dawned on him. None of his letters were making it through to Rhett. Sue must have told the McLaughlins, and they were making sure Link's letters weren't making it to their intended target. And without a return address, Rhett couldn't write him back.  
  
Link clutched Rhett's sweater to his chest as he rocked himself back and forth on his borrowed bed. It was so unfair, how could they do this to them? They had been inseparable as children. Either boy more than welcome in the other's house.  
  
Hot tears burned their way down his cheeks. Link had sworn that they had made him cry for the last time. But that clearly wasn't the case. Not when he was being isolated like this. No family to call his own, no way to reach his best friend, not even a new acquaintance to make the passage of time easier.  
  
Link clung to the sweater his best friend had given him before he had been taken away. Breath hitching in his chest, he cried himself to sleep.

* * *

It dawned on Link one dreary winter morning, what if he signed the name on the envelope differently? What if they were only checking for his name and not the address? It was worth a shot.  
  
He spent most of the school day writing his letter to Rhett. Filling several pages with what had been happening in his life and how much he desperately needed his friend. Ensuring to add in why he sent the letter under another name, his other name.  
  
Penning his first name on the envelope had been the easiest, but what should he do about the last name? Link tapped the pen against his lips, "Charles Lincoln? Would that be too easily recognizable?" He shrugged, it was just different enough, but just similar enough that it should work.  
  
Skipping out of the last period, Link ran to the post office to mail the letter. The post lady smiling at him sweetly as he purchased the postage fee, "Sending this to your pen pal again? Do you two talk much?"  
  
The woman had recognized him and maybe even the name on the envelope, he hoped to the moon and back that she didn't know anyone in his family. "Yes ma'am. We talk as often as mail couriers will let us," he smiled sweetly at her. She didn't have to know he wasn't getting any mail from his friend.  
  
"Well aren't you just the sweetest! Well here's hoping this find your friend swiftly!" She smiled as she dropped it in the slot.  
  
"Well, thank you for you help. Have a lovely day," Link tilted his head towards the nice woman before exiting the building.

* * *

A letter addressed to him from a James Locke was waiting for him several weeks later. He stared at it excitedly, his hands shaking staring at the address of Rhett's house.  
  
Running through the house to his room he shut the door and sat against it. He didn't need anyone sneaking up on him and catching him off guard. Not when he had finally made it this far.  
  
His eyes scanned the letter and his suspicions were confirmed, Sue had told Rhett's folks. In order to protect their baby boy they filtered the mail. He wasn't sure where all the lost letters were, but he had a strong feeling that they had wound up in the fireplace.  
  
Link cussed, of course they had.  
  
Rhett continued on to say that Sue had lost a lot of weight since Link's move. In a deep part of his heart, he felt bad for his mom. But she had done this to them. She built her bed, now she had to lay in it.  
  
Rhett also wrote that he loved and missed him so much. That he was so sorry that he had no one to lean on. That if he could he would be there in a heartbeat. That he was sorry that he couldn't do anything.  
  
Link rubbed at the tears pooling in his eyes. God he loved this boy so much.  
  
Rhett gave him a time frame to call him so they could talk about their college choices. Saying he would sit by the phone so he could grab it, so no one would have to know it's him.  
  
Link suddenly had something to look forward to. A way to break out of this enforced isolation. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry not sorry. Love you.
> 
> You can tell me how much you don't love me below or on my [tumblr](https://chibitabathasloves.tumblr.com/).


End file.
